An Autumnal Community Action Plan update: Grab a cuppa!
Cosy Spaces – We are delighted to let you know that another winter programme of Cosy Space sessions has been made possible, thanks to the brilliant volunteers who provide the warm welcome in the sessions and some much-appreciated funding support from PKC Communities team.
Essentially, “Cosy Spaces” is just that – a cosy space where you’re sure to receive a warm welcome and some light refreshments. In some spaces, it’s a cuppa and a biscuit but we have some delicious home-made soup available in the Soup and a Cuppa sessions on Wednesdays and Fridays in Auchterarder, Tuesdays in Aberuthven. Theres absolutely no cost for attending any of the sessions and you’ll have the opportunity to hear about other things happening in town and support available to keep yourself cosy all the time. The funding enables our fantastic Town Bus to keep running four days over the winter period too so please do share details of the programme, especially with friends and neighbours who aren’t online.
Auchtoberfest: Our second beer festival was a superb success with a great atmosphere from the moment the doors opened. The idea for Auchtoberfest was borne out of the CAP consultation feedback around people’s desire to have “more to do, more reasons to get together”. We couldn’t have imagined what a success it would turn out to be and are very grateful to the volunteers involved, the sponsors and of course those who came along (especially in their Lederhosen!).
The Brew Crew, are all volunteers and its great fun to be a part of organising and running the day. If you’d like to be a part of this next year, please get in touch.
Library:
As you’re hopefully aware, PK Culture recently invited people to contribute their views to the future of the library service in Auchterarder. Auchterarder and District were complimented on the response rate to this consultation – Thank you to everyone who took time to share their views. PK Culture have invited individuals who returned their survey and indicated that they would potentially be interested in being part of a committee or working group for their library to a meeting on the 6th of November in the Aytoun Hall at 6.30pm. An update will be shared by PK Culture following this meeting but if you’d like to be part of exploring options for securing the future of our library, please do attend.
Auchterarder Biodiversity Town- Exciting news!
PKC / Tayside Biodiversity Partnership have secured funding to enable progress of community projects which support biodiversity in our local area. We already have some superb work happening locally thanks to ACSR Green Spaces Group, Bloom, Aberuthven Ablaze, the Community Garden at the Parish Church, TCSoA, the Allotment group and the Horticultural association and with funding already secured by the Biodiversity Partnership, these projects can bloom!
To bring people together for a conversation around this, we’re excited to be hosting a mapping session on Sunday 17th of November. We’re looking for local input on what you know about nature around us – where you see great existing habitats, where you spot the more unusual wildlife visitors, what your passion is in this area! Would you like to see Hedgehog highways, do you know of a great wetland area for amphibians? A great place for bat and bird boxes? The funding is available NOW to make these projects happen, all that’s needed is local knowledge as to what would make a big positive impact for nature. Please do come along and share what you know over a cuppa and some cake – its an open drop in between 2pm and 5.30pm
Proposed Strathallan Volunteer Driver Project
Many of the town groups and individuals have previously been involved in supporting friends and neighbours with driving. Could you be a part of getting a volunteer driver scheme started in the Strathallan area? This one is shared on behalf of the local health and social care partnership:
“It has been identified that a volunteer driver scheme in some form would be of benefit in the Strathallan area, particularly for elderly or vulnerable people trying to access health appointments. The Kinross-shire Volunteer Driver group gave a very informative presentation at the recent Stronger Communities Network on how their group run and the huge benefits of it to community. http://www.kvgandros.org.uk/
I propose to hold a meeting at St Margaret’s Hospital sitting room on Tuesday 5th November at 10am and would like to invite you to come along. Please share this invitation with anyone you think would be interested in supporting this going forward, whether that be as a volunteer, a steering group member or to give ideas and advice to help us along”
Kincardine Fields
Kincardine Fields was a topic of much discussion around the time of the CAP consultation, with people in the community voicing their desire to see the land retained as green space instead of being used for housing. People talked about enjoying the space as it is or enhancing this with a community orchard. A lot of work has been happening behind the scenes on this and we’re about to share the progress with the view of inviting interested people to form a working group to take this to the next stage. If you’d like to hear more, please come along to the meeting on the 26th of November at 7.30pm in the APC Community Church Hall.
And…..date for the 2025 diary – “Connected Community” We’re holding this on the 8th of February 10am-Noon. It’s a chance for your group to share the wonderful things you do with the community and encourage more people to come join in with what you do! If your group would like to request a table for this event, please do get in touch. aanda.cap@gmail.com
Lots more is happening – including conversations with PKC around the Sport and Recreation Facilities…….meetings with PKC to discuss outcomes of the CAP Traffic and Transport Group Parking survey etc, look out for future news about this and if you’d like to get involved with making things happen in any of the CAP themes, we’d love to hear from you!
Below, you’ll find a link to “What’s on” included – detailing some superb community events upcoming, the Picturehouse Book Festival, Christmas events…..there are a lot of exciting things happening this month! Also attached is the Advice Hub leaflet along with a poster detailing a “Meet the funder” event happening in Perth which might be of interest to some.
As always, please do share posters from your group with me and I will add them to the Digital Boards and “What’s on”
